At daybreak they set off northwards, crossed Reddesdale, and came down, in the afternoon, into the valley of the Coquet, within two miles of Yardhope.
Great indeed was the surprise and joy of John Forster and his wife, when they made out the two girls riding, with Oswald, towards the hold.
"What miracle is this, lad ?" the former said, while his wife was embracing her nieces.

"We heard, but two days since, of the raid on the Armstrongs, and how the girls were carried off by the Bairds." Here Oswald put his finger to his lips, to stop him from saying aught of Jane Armstrong's death.

He had, after dismounting, whispered in his mother's ear, before she had time to speak to the girls, that as yet they knew nought of their mother's death, and that he had left it to her to break it to them.
"I have been, since, scouring the country," his father went on, "to try to get my friends to take the matter up; but in truth, they were not over willing to do so.

All know that it is no slight enterprise to attack the Bairds in their stronghold.

We fared but badly, last time we went there, though that was but a blow and a retreat; but all know that the Bairds' hold is not to be taken like a country tower.